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Some forgotten research

Two Cents

In response to the "Two Cents" column published for Fredrick A Metcalf titled: "Silent majority speaks out on feds, unions, social security," dated Monday Feb. 18, 2013.

It is with a great deal of angst that I read columns that are untrue and obvious that very little, if any, research was done before the writer espouses things that individual believes is true but never checked.

He tells about how "250 miles west is an agency that is selling guns to Mexico." It is true that they once did, but as soon as it was found out by the Attorney General and the President, it was stopped. The sale of guns to Mexico was started under George Bush's administration and it was known as "Gunwalker." The ATF started this on their own to try and follow the guns to their final destination. Not a very bright idea, but no administration official had anything to do with it. Later, the ATF launched "Operation Fast and Furious."

Contrary to the statement made by Mr. Metcalf, the President stopped it as soon as he found out about it.

You can bet your retirement on the fact that senior citizens are very concerned about the benefits they paid into and expect to be able to get their full benefits from. Do not mess with Texas or senior benefits!

Then we have the claim that Pelosi and Obama started the Health Care plan with dedicated Medicare money. Baloney! The money did come from Medicare, but it came because of savings of monies that were being spent that did not need to be.

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Nearly 50 million older Americans and Americans with disabilities rely on Medicare each year. The new health care law makes Medicare stronger by adding new benefits, fighting fraud, cutting costs and improving care for patients.

There's a lot of misinformation out there. For too long, too many hard working Americans paid the price for policies that handed free rein to insurance companies. President Obama's health reform law gives hard working families the security they deserve. The Affordable Care Act holds insurance companies accountable, lowers health care costs, gives Americans more freedom and control in their health care choices and improves the quality of care.

Thanks in part to new tools and resources provided by the Affordable Care Act, health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered nearly $4.1 billion in taxpayer dollars in 2011 and $10.7 billion over the last three years.

On this note, "LBJ chose to take the trust funds out of Social Security rather than raise taxes," I could not find where LBJ took any money out of Social Security, what I did find is, Johnson asked for a temporary 6 percent surcharge in income taxes, in 1967 to cover the mounting deficit caused by increased spending. So no research was done here by Mr. Metcalf!

Millions of elderly people found succor through the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act. President Johnson signed the Medicare law in 1965-providing millions of elderly healthcare stability.

President Obama's historic health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, strengthens Medicare, offers eligible seniors a range of preventive services with no cost-sharing, and provides discounts on drugs when in the coverage gap known as the "donut hole."

Mr. Metcalf goes on to say "Bill and Al (Bill Clinton-Al Gore), began taxing our Social Security benefits." Bull! The taxation of Social Security began in 1984 after President Reagan signed it into law. Only 50% of Social Security benefits can be added to taxable income and only if the taxpayer's total income exceeds certain thresholds.

Mr. Metcalf says, "With the Social Security trust funds intermingled with the general fund." The Trust Fund was created in 1939 and from its inception it has worked the same way. The Trust Fund has never been put into the general fund of the government. The idea that it was comes from the federal budget accounting. In 1969 the Johnson Administration included it in what was called a "unified budget." This gave the government a single budget. It was called on-budget. In 1990 the Trust Funds were again taken off-budget. On or off-budget is only for accounting purposes.